And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague will not be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. – Ex 12:13

It was earlier this month that I read on LinkedIn a post from a gntleman called Paul Jackson who posted these beautiful visuals of Jacaranda trees drenched in their majestic purple flowers, visuals he took from an aerial view flying over Jozi he says. Paul wrote “Jozi, my Jozi! There’s something magical about Johannesburg in spring. The city bursts into colour, with the Jacarandas putting on their annual show – and it’s nothing short of breathtaking. From the streets, they’re stunning. But from the sky? Surreal. I snapped a few shots of the purple-drenched avenues from our little aerie “Miss Behave” – with my mate and co-pilot, Neil Jackson. We often focus on the cracks – the potholes, the broken lights, the chaos. But every now and then, if you pause and lift your gaze, you’ll find a city full of soul, beauty, and some of the most remarkable people on the planet.”

I screen shot his post without thinking much of the royalty colour that covered beautiful Jozi except that it reminded me of home, when Mthatha was still Mthatha (those who know, know). The memory I had was how beautiful the avenues (ironically)of my community were, drenched in the same purple colour, memories of playing as young girls and boys even running into the near by bushes (emaqunubeni) we called it; where we picked and ate wild berries coming back late in the afternoon with our feet dark blue and purple from walking barefoot, stomping on the berries that were growing in the wild. Purple then was beautiful, safe, and fun. Purple represented home. Purple then was almost similar to how Paul viewed it just a few days ago, a burst of colour, nothing short of breathtaking. Something surreal! Fast forward to the last few days I realise why I was drawn to this LinkedIn post beyond a memory about home. A sounding of an alarm as the women of South Africa whom like the street of Jozi are purple-drenched despite the cracks – the bruises , the broken bones, and the coffins break into a cry for help. I realised I was drawn to the sounding of the alarm calling a nation to a social cause that affects the whole of humanity. I was reminded of the bible scripture about the Passover in Exodus 12, here the Lord gave an instruction to His people, who were in bondage in Egypt. The Lord was tired of negotiating their release with Pharaoh and he spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave an instruction the people had to follow which included marking their door posts with the blood of the lamb signifying the presence of the children of God for when he would send a plaque to destroy Egypt. He said “For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. And I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague will not be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:12-13). I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the movement that would have been started by Moses and that of Women for Change who charged us to turn our profile pictures purple to raise awareness and mark oursleves present in the plight for GBV in the audience of the globe so we could be heard by a goverment who’s been mute and unresponsive. I began to see the profile pictures as marked door post to the community that is tired of being imprisoned by multiple layered social ills that breed such a pandemic. The marking of our profiles strangely removed our sexual identity and made us all one community who wants to be free. Femicide and gender based violence is imprisoning man, women and children, it’s imprisoning families. We live in a world where we are not free to do the most basic things like walking alone in our communities freely. We live in a world where I have to consider how my purple profile picture will aggravate the cab driver who will be taking me to the airport at 05:00 tomorrow in the dark , with just me and him in the car. We live in a world where our children are babysat and put on a leash like puppies because two steps away is way too far a distance. The truth is we are no different from the Egyptian prisoners that the Israelites were. How can you be free in a world where even good honest men have to keep a distance incase they become misconstrued in anyway. Where even you who has never even hurt a fly are in prisoned for looking like the one who could? Tell me that is not a prison for you too.

I made a striking observation in the choice of the colour purple, this is not just the colour of royalty, dignity and honour to the highest office, it is also the colour that speaks to discernment, our ability to perceive situations and circumstances clearly. There is a spiritual shift that we should be mindful of. We can no longer be bystanders and impartial to the things of social justice. Just imagine if the Israelites said they would not put their blood on their door post because they did not want to be involved in “politics”. It’s not politics, it’s a matter of life and death that affects us all. You know I am reminded of how prophet Jeremiah was the sounding alarm for a time and instead of hearing the warning, the people of Judea persecuted him. The broken hearted and imperfect people the church is called to are the ones sounding the alarm, protesting, if you cannot hear their cause which is very much ours, how do we expect that they will ever have faith in the God we represent. Our silence takes away the influence of the body of Christ in the community. It is time to prayerfully weigh in. Prayer alone is not enough, there is a missing voice. The bible says, when Ezekiel was taken by the Spirit of God between Heaven and earth, he saw many detestable things in the temple. Do you ever wonder how detestable things get to the temple? What would he see around us today?

In the words of Prophet Amos, Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.

#BeBrave #BeBlessed

#QuenchMyThirst #ThirstyThursday

Thank God Jesus pursued me.

LM

Lungie@quenchmythirst.life